World Without Water

As the 21st Century begins as the Age of Drought, we look at three places–Florida, China, and Nevada–where dryness has gone big. In Florida, the world’s most famous swamp, the Everglades, has been turning into a salt flat. In China, vast problems with water pollution have been compounded in some areas by problems of having no water. And Nevada’s Lake Mead, once the largest reservoir in the world, now is given a 50% chance of drying up completely in the next dozen years.

Really scary footage of China and the everglades… good to see people in China organizing, though. It’s the same everywhere, isn’t it? We have to do what our governments can’t or won’t.

Watching the PDC DVDs, I learned that in deserts, you want to have the largest of swales and the smallest of dams. Which leads me to think that the Nevada segment of the video doesn’t fit with the other two. If I understand correctly, those dams should never have been created there in the first place.

hahaha yeah. I like how you spotted the white elephant in that last segment. The colorado river doesn’t even reach the gulf of California anymore.

It’s interesting that in all three segments they talk about development and how in Florida especially, 1,000 people move there each week. Is there a place in the world where development and population growth isn’t a factor in this problem?